Worth Trying For
by ThatRomantic
Summary: When her family is broken, she wants to salvage what is left.    Written for candycoatedhappiness's The Random iTunes Challenge on HPFF


_**Quote:**__ Don't tell me it's not worth tryin' for – Bryan Adams_

**Worth Trying For**  
><span>Random iTunes Challenge<span>  
><em>By ThatRomantic<em>

A father's love is unconditional. That's what people say, anyway. I'm not saying my Dad's love isn't unconditional, simply that that's all I know about our relationship and that is as far as it stretches. It's like we have a mutual understanding that we love each other, and that we will always love each other, but that's all we will ever be. It's scary to come to this kind of realisation having had a Dad for seventeen years of your life, and that the only reason that you have realised it is because Mum and Dad aren't Mum and Dad anymore.

Separated; such an odd word to use when a marriage falls apart. When I think of something separated from something else, I always imagine that it was meant to be together and the two 'things' had to be pried apart to become, well, separated. I suppose there is a sense of prying apart and 'meant to be together' when it comes to nearly twenty years of marriage and even longer knowing each other, though. Being childhood sweethearts and best friends for seven years before even thinking about dating will do that to people, but in all honesty even I could tell there was something off from the start. It's like they worked for a time, and then eventually both started to just make do with what they had, before they finally realised that they weren't even sure they were friends anymore.

Now, it's come to me living with a father I barely know and avoiding my Mum's new place like the plague. It makes the whole idea real. I'm so glad I have this summer home from Hogwarts and that my brother is with Mum most of the holiday, because it means I can have a crash course in father/daughter relationship building.

We were never close, Dad and me. Mum and I were like peas in a pod, bonding over our common interests in books and learning, and being bullied for our appearance, but Dad was always away with work or on the Floo with some new case. He didn't have much time to tuck us in to bed when we were younger, or listen to our school troubles. It was always Mum's handwriting in the owls from home and only occasionally there was a P.S in his script.

This summer I intend to change that. I want to have a real relationship with my father, one that is more than a simple understanding. I want to have shared memories, a common ground, for him to understand me the way a Dad should. I'm not expecting it to come overnight, but I want to be able to talk to him about less materialistic and trivial things than our common admiration for the Weird Sisters'. I don't expect to be talking to him about my emotions and boys and things straight off the bat, but I'd like another guide in my life other than my Mum. I want a male role model.

Nothing good comes easy, but this is definitely worth the fight.

* * *

><p><em>Hi guys, I know it's been a long time and I still haven't updated SGtT *avoids arrows*<em>

_This challenge went up the same day I wrote this. I clicked on it thinking it'd be another maybe challenge that I'd sort of know what to write about and come the deadline realise I didn't do, but how wrong was I?_

_This is a slightly different style from my usual stuff because this is a bit more personal. I haven't given the main character a name and I haven't identified her parents, this is partially because I wanted to develop my skills as a writer in general and wanted it to translate to an original fic format (take out a few floos here, and owls there and you basically have a normal everyday environment) but I also wanted it to feel like the reader could be this girl. I'm not going to lie, this one is very close to home, and I think it's normal for a child to realise when their parents split that they're closer to one parent than the other._

_The thing that decided I should do this challenge was the quote, I knew immediately that this would be what I'd write about when I got the quote and the words just came to me._

_Hope you enjoyed it!_

_Romantic_


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